that is.Perks have been diminished by ethics rules

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Congressmen hate how hard it has become to be creepy
Lawmakers bemoan social mediaA Politico piece today says the guys passing laws on Capitol Hill are so over it. Their jobs, that is.Perks have been diminished by ethics rules, there haven’t been any pay raises and plus, the gridlock. Also, Twitter and Facebook have made it hard for them to hide out and do private things.

Now, in the era of blogs, Twitter, Facebook and Foursquare, the spotlight never goes dark.In a recent private conversation with a POLITICO reporter, a lawmaker expressed surprise that anyone could simply Tweet his location, wherever he is in the world. The lawmaker began playing out potentially embarrassing scenarios in which he could be identified.Former New York Rep. Tom Reynolds, who served as chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee and is now a lobbyist at Nixon Peabody, said he warns new lawmakers that the constant media presence and new technology have obliterated any privacy.“The fishbowl today means that you are captured on film or you’re captured on digital of a cellphone or a BlackBerry that can be on YouTube in minutes,” he said.

But as everyone knows, it’s not social media giving lawmakers a hard time. It’s lawmakers using social media giving everyone else a hard time,Louis Vuitton.Cough.Ahem.And.

cowboy hats

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WSJ’s Noonan has the worst idea of what an American Olympics uniform should look like
Peggy Noonan writes on American Olympics uniformsIn today’s Wall Street Journal conservative columnist Peggy Noonan weighs in on the controversial American Olympics uniforms:

They don’t really look all that American. Have you seen them? Do they say “America” to you? …Americans wear baseball caps, trucker hats, cowboy hats, watch caps, Stetsons, golf caps, even Panama hats and fedoras. They wear jeans and suits and khakis and shorts and workout clothes. The Americans in the now-famous uniform picture look like something out of a Vogue spread where the models arrayed on the yacht look like perfect representatives of the new global elite. …The failure of the uniforms is that they don’t communicate: “Here comes America.”Peggy Noonan writes on American Olympics uniformsThey communicate: “Chic global Martians coming your way.”

Is that what we want our Olympians wearing next week when the games begin? A trucker hat? Jeans? Workout clothes? Should we fit them into a pair of Crocs, too? Do Crocs say “Here comes America”? No, in fact they say, “You really don’t want to talk to me because I’m wearing Crocs.”The only problem with the uniforms, designed by Ralph Lauren, is that they’re made in China. Everyone recognizes the obvious stupidity there. Other than that, the uniforms are sharp. The colors of the American flag are there. They look official. They’re clean. Let’s move on.

The point he was making this morning has nothing to do with reducing transparency

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Senator finds source of hyper-partisanship: C-SPAN
ThSaxby Chambliss blames C SPAN for partisanshipe polarization of Congress gets worse and worse every day. Know why,Nike Free Run? The hotbed of sin known as C-SPAN. Thats’ what Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) said this morning on MSNBC.

“I think one thing that’s made it that way is C-SPAN, very honestly. You’ve got folks on TV now, instead of doing political commercials, they rant and rave during dinner time on the East Coast, and then at 9 o’clock, you see the West Coast guys up there.”

…Come again?Chambliss’ spokeswoman explained what he really meant. “The point he was making this morning has nothing to do with reducing transparency, but that, through special-order speeches, etc., some lawmakers use C-SPAN to communicate politically to their constituents in a way they used to only be able to do in campaigns,” she said.[Talking Points Memo]

why don’

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The truth behind the big, bad Cayman bank accounts
Douglas Holtz-Eakin of the National Review makes an interesting point in a post today — Instead of demonizing Americans who hold money in Cayman Island bank accounts, why don’t we learn from them?

The existence, success, and scale of the Cayman financial sector should tell U.S. policymakers to look outward to opportunities around the globe as a way to enlarge the markets for U.S. workers and take advantage of the potential income from the 95 percent of the world’s consumers that live outside U.S. borders.And second,財布 グッチ, the U.S. tax system should be configured so that its firms can compete permanently on a level playing field with companies from other countries. In practice, this means that the U.S. should bring itself into alignment with global best practice and adopt a territorial tax system. A territorial system would tax U.S. earnings at the U.S. rate, but not tax international earnings. Instead, those earnings would be subject to a single layer of tax at the host-country rate — allowing for a level playing field for competition. And those earnings should be repatriated tax-free so that the U.S. economy can benefit from global success.The Caymans have unfairly been a political punching bag. The right reaction should be to recognize that its operations carry a moral for U.S. tax policy and get started on much-needed corporate-tax reform.

It’s funny how everyone is always so quick to criticize people like Mitt Romney for having a Cayman bank account, but how many do you think took the time to understand why an American would choose to hold money there?  Rabble, rabble.  It’s un-American! Rabble, rabble.

“reality” TV and technology have infected and intoxicated us such that we won’t—or

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Keith Ablow thinks Manti Te’o ‘,Air Max Pas Cher;needs psychological help’
Because when Fox News’ Dr. Keith Ablow speaks, we listen.It must be sports week. On Wednesday Ablow weighed in on the Lance Armstrong interview with Oprah Winfrey, saying for Armstrong to achieve redemption for lying about taking performance-enhancing drugs, he needed to “take our breath away” with a strong confession. Today, it’s about Manti Te’o, the college football star who it has been revealed likely lied about having a girlfriend who died of cancer.In typical Ablow fashion, the psychiatrist is ready to diagnose and treat Te’o in public via his FoxNews.com column:

… Te’o needs psychological help.  One version of the story paints him vulnerable enough and naïve enough to declare his love and devotion publicly for someone he had never even met, nor Skyped with, let alone kissed.  That version has him grieving her death like a devoted husband—despite never having laid eyes on her, nor touched her.  The other version of the story paints him as a co-conspirator in fraud and deception, willing to manipulate the feelings of millions of people for his own pleasure or advancement—a younger, even sicker version of Lance Armstrong.And either way, Te’o is the poster boy for a phenomenon I have been writing about for years, and which threatens our culture in a dramatic way:  The erosion of reality and embrace of fiction via social networking, “reality” TV and technology.Call it The Delusion Disease. …Social media, “reality” TV and technology have infected and intoxicated us such that we won’t—or, even worse—we can’t face facts, anymore.

glad-handing passers-by. He is a local celebrity of sorts

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Charles Barron continues to make news as well as no sense
In Daily Beast profile Charles Barron calls himself the biggest patriot there isCharles Barron, New York City councilman, former Black Panther and Democratic congressional candidate is profiled in The Daily Beast. He continues to say things that have absolutely no meaning whatsoever:

On a recent weekday, Barron was holding court on the sidewalk outside a restaurant called Sista’s Place that doubles as his Bed-Stuy district campaign headquarters,Tn Pas Cher, glad-handing passers-by. He is a local celebrity of sorts, with high name recognition due to his headline-grabbing statements and the yellow campaign posters on virtually every storefront. A middle-aged man named Keith stops and says that he’s heard that Barron is against the Constitution. “Naw, man, I’m the biggest patriot there is,” Barron says with hands clasped over his Nehru jacket–clad heart. “I love this country so much that I want it to change.”

“I love my mathlete son so much that I want him to play football!”At a recent town hall-type forum in New York Barron articulated his qualifications to serve as a congressman: “I plan on bringing a movement to Washington.“ ”I bring movement.“ ”I bring organization.“ ”I bring leadership.”A Republican strategist in the Beast’s profile says it best. “He’ll go on the floor on the [House], and he’ll make statements where he will talk crazy shit.”Yeah, probably.[The Daily Beast]More on Barron: New York‘s 8th District May Elect a Man Who Thinks Israel Runs ’Concentration Death Camps’

Yellin interviewed Mrs. Obama together with her brother Craig Robinson. In the sit down interview

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CNN interviews Michelle, Ann ahead of debates
From a CNN press release:“Chief White House correspondent Jessica Yellin sat down with First Lady Michelle Obama and chief political analyst Gloria Borger interviewed Ann Romney. Portions of the interviews will first air today on The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer, which begins at 4 p.m. ET. The interviews will be featured during the network’s ‘Debate Night in America’ coverage, which begins Wednesday at 7 p.m. ET.“Yellin interviewed Mrs. Obama together with her brother Craig Robinson. In the sit down interview, they discuss the upcoming debate, which falls on the Obama’s 20th wedding anniversary. Mrs. Obama discusses what it is like to watch her husband debate and weighs in on Ann Romney’s sentiment that running for president is “hard.”“In Borger’s pre-debate interview with Ann Romney,gucci 長財布, the candidate’s wife candidly shares how Gov. Romney prepares for the high stakes face-off. During the one-on-one, Mrs. Romney takes on her husband’s critics, discusses her role supporting him and addresses the debates’ potential impact on his campaign.

s resume.”

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When Obama asks for your resume it doesn’t mean you’ll get a job, OK?
President Barack Obama asks guy for resume, guy still cant get a jobDuring a tele-town hall in late January President Barack Obama responded to one woman’s complaint about her husband’s lack of employment by asking her to “send me your husband’s resume.”More than two months later… Yeah, that guy is still unemployed.

“Not even recruiting companies are calling anymore,” said Jennifer Wedel, the Fort Worth mother of two who chatted online this year with Obama about her out-of-work husband…“I did feel we got our hopes up a little,” [she] said last week. “I mean, he’s the POTUS. But it seems not even the leader of our country can get [Darin] a job.”

Omg.[Star-Telegram, Politico]

National Review reports that Morris —

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Dick Morris reinvents himself (again)
Dick Morris has always been something of a political chameleon.Before his days as a conservative commentator on Fox News, Morris was Bill Clinton’s chief strategist. And before that, he was a Republican strategist. Now, after embarrassingly inaccurate predictions of a Romney landslide in 2012, Morris is looking to reinvent himself once again.Dick Morris reinvents himself (again)National Review reports that Morris — who has authored books such as Here Come the Black Helicopters! and Revolt! – says that “he’s now fighting to do for the Republican party what he did for the Democrats during the Clinton years — moderate it.”

If Republicans ever want to win, they’ll have to adapt to America’s changing electorate and recalibrate their message to draw in these demographics, he believes, and he wants to show the way: “Now I’m kind of a man with a mission.”“I showed Democrats how to move center,” he says of the Clinton years. “Now, I want to help do the same thing with the Republican party. . . . I’ve got a pretty good track record of getting presidents and senators and governors elected. And I think that gives me credibility to talk to my fellow Republicans.”

How’s that for political spin?Meanwhile,nike air max, New York Magazine‘s Jonathan Chalt offers a vastly different take on Morris’ new brand.  He notes that Morris’ newfound moderation should serve him well as he tries to make a new name for himself over at CNN:

 It’s probably a better way to get airtime on CNN. It’s also a logical persona for a huckster who is quickly running short on them. Morris burst onto the national scene as a grotesquely amoral centrist consultant to the Clinton administration in the nineties, before leaving in disgrace and returning as a raving Republican lunatic bilking the conservative faithful. The new Morris has a chance to present himself, perhaps, as a David Gergen–esque Beltway hand — a chastened political operative longing for the return of good old-fashioned common sense and comity between the two parties. No more black helicopters but, perhaps, gray ones.